gannett plans to layoff 3,000 by december.

I totally agree with you. It's great to still have a job, but I almost wish these companies would just rip off the Band-Aid instead of slowly pulling it a bit at a time.

At some point, I think most writing positions will be switched to salary, so the company can milk even more out of the productive workers.

Karma is going to be a bitch for the suits down the line.

 

The stock is still giving out a quarterly .40 cents a share dividend. The highest in more than a decade. Brilliant.

 

You can't just switch people to salary like that. Salaried employees have to supervise somebody.

Not that they might not try it anyway. But it is illegal.

 

On the bright side, maybe managers won't have to be so "creative" when dissing employees during evaluations. Fives for everyone!

 

Is it? Would it be better to get that indefinite vacation?

For some people, I would argue yes. For some, at this point no.

Unfortunately, I think the vast majority of us will have to face the unwelcome prospect sooner or later.

 

I wonder how many publishers will get bonuses when they meet their budget numbers at the end of the year.

 

I'm (mostly) over my outrage at this situation.

What is more outrageous to me is the idea that "you're lucky to have a job" and "losing some is better than losing it all".

All of that is true, and I'm not outraged or angry at the people who say this.

I guess I don't have it in me to blindly accept whatever my employer wants to dish out. I guess I have it in me to look for a better situation for myself when my present situation either is too unbearable, or I look several months down the road and see layoffs, outsourcing, perhaps a total collapse of the company.

I'm not so married to this industry that I am unwilling to start again in a new career field. I'm not so paralyzed by fear, pragmatism, and this economy that I will quit looking for a new job, or career, before I even start.

I don't know how all this is going to turn out; no one does. Maybe the newspapers bounce back, maybe they morph into something barely recognizable to us now, maybe they collapse; we'll find out.

I do know things are changing and will never go back to the way things were.

So, we - not just myself, but all of you - can look at trends, gather all the information we can we need to make hard decisions about our futures, and make the best decision possible for ourselves and our families. I understand that journalism is a calling for many of us, but it can't come at the expense of our health, our lives, our happiness and at the expense of those we love and who love us the most.